Friday, November 01, 2013

CSE received $636K from "foreign partners" in 2012-13

Page 6.43 of Volume I of the Public Accounts of Canada 2013 reports that CSE's "Foreign Partners - Security" fund received $636,386 in fiscal year 2012-13.

The Public Accounts also report that CSE spent $887,460 from the account during the year, leaving a total of $2,002,417 at the end of the fiscal year.

The same document explains that the Foreign Partners accounts "were established to record funds received from foreign partners, to cover expenditures to be made on their behalf, in accordance with the provisions of agreements with the Government of Canada."

It seems likely that the partner in question is the US National Security Agency.

Adding last year's data to previous years' totals (discussed here), we get a grand total of at least $11.4 million paid to CSE, and at least $9.4 million spent by CSE on behalf of its "foreign partners", since 2002-03.

What is this money paying for?

Update 10 December 2013: An NSA document dated 3 April 2013 (part of the Snowden collection), subsequently released in part by the CBC, states that "No Consolidated Cryptologic Program (CCP) money is allocated to CSEC, but NSA at times pays R&D and technology costs on shared projects with CSEC." That NSA money is probably the source of the "Foreign Partners - Security" funds, but it would still be nice to know what kinds of projects are being funded.